


A Little Slip Up

by justdk



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Fluff, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-01
Updated: 2018-03-01
Packaged: 2019-03-25 10:31:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13832304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justdk/pseuds/justdk
Summary: Neil sustains a sports-related injury and Andrew helps out in more ways than one.





	A Little Slip Up

**Author's Note:**

> Written to fulfill an anonymous prompt: "something with Andrew laughing or smiling genuinely at Neil or because of Neil and the rest of the foxes are just like “what the shit”"
> 
> I was originally going to make this sweet but… my evil brain kicked in and turned this all around

Saturday mornings were for hangover recovery or quiet moments in bed with Neil, not youth camp at 8am with a bunch of elementary kids who were as tall or taller than him.

Andrew scowled and stubbed out his cigarette when Neil, conveying orders from Wymack, told him he was being a bad influence on the children. Andrew exhaled the smoke into Neil’s face and felt a twinge of satisfaction when Neil’s eyelids fluttered closed and he leaned in to inhale the smoke.

“Now who’s being a bad example?” Andrew murmured, moving into Neil’s personal space, so close their chests almost brushed.

Neil flushed and swallowed quickly, looking away from Andrew. Like he could hide his feelings. Fucking ridiculous.

“100%,” Andrew said, just so he could watch Neil’s eyes flash with hot interest. He sauntered off towards the goal before Neil could use his smart mouth to lure him into something else.

The rest of the Foxes were doing their best to be Good Role Models, even his grumpy twin was showing a small grade-schooler how to properly hold their racquet. Half the kids were flocked around Kevin and Allison, Kevin because he was ‘KEVIN DAY! KEVIN DAY!’ and Allison because she was, apparently, the childhood dream of beauty. Renee was sitting on the grass letting two girls braid her hair while Matt and Dan were trying to corral the kids into doing warm-up stretches.

Since it wasn’t an official practice the team wasn’t wearing their usual gear, just casual workout clothes. ‘How hard can these kids hit anyway?’ Nicky had asked as they drove over. Neil and Kevin, of course, had to take that rhetorical question and run with it, talking about their performances when they were younger ad nauseam. Andrew turned up the music to drown them out.

Currently, Nicky was posing for pictures with the kids and making stupid faces. It was absolute chaos. Andrew lounged in the goal, wishing he had another cigarette. One little boy was eyeing him cautiously and Andrew stared back, not to be intimidating, but to see what the kid was made of. The boy made a face, probably trying to look hard, and came over to the goal.

“Is it true that you have knives in your armbands?” the boy asked.

Andrew nodded solemnly.

“Can I see them?” the kid asked.

Suddenly Neil was at their side, his smile panicked.

“Hey!” he said, sounding out of breath, his tone one of forced friendliness, “Uh, Kyle, right? We’re about to get started if you want to join the stretching circle.”

The kid – Kyle – gave Neil the stink eye.  “We were talking,” he said.

“Okay… well you can talk more after the game, alright? No warm-ups means no play.” Neil was doing his best to appear co-captain material but the little shit did not look impressed.

“Don’t be rude,” Andrew added. “Only person who gets to hassle Josten is me.”

“Whatever,” Kyle muttered. He skulked off to join the others and Neil watched him leave, shaking his head.

“I bet you were just like that at his age,” Andrew said.

Neil frowned. “Not to people older than me. My teammates? Sure, I talked shit to them but never coaches.”

He looked troubled, like he was in a bad place in his mind. Andrew reached out and squeezed the back of his neck.

“Head in the game, junkie,” he reminded him.

“Yeah…” Neil inhaled, exhaled, and gave himself a shake. “Thanks.”

“You owe me.”

Neil grinned. “How exciting!” He blew Andrew a sneaky air kiss before joining the stretch circle. Andrew watched him run off, watched him go through a fluid sequence of warm-ups. The other players were too occupied to notice. Except for Kyle. Andrew gave him a bored look.

The Foxes spent a half hour working with a couple students each, showing them the basics of the different positions, correcting their technique. Andrew’s job was to demonstrate how to guard the goal by blocking every shot that was sent his way. It would have been completely demoralizing for the kids except Andrew stopped all the Foxes’ shots, too.

Once the scrimmage got underway the Foxes left the field and patrolled the sidelines, shouting out encouragement and corrections as needed. Some of the kids had real potential. Andrew stood next to Aaron, hoping to confuse some of the players into mixing up their names.

Neil was standing right next to the field, clapping and calling out pointers to the strikers, when it happened. Kyle came charging across the field, chasing a ball sent by the goal keeper, when he “tripped,” careening off the field, right into Neil. More specifically, his racquet hit Neil squarely in the groin and Neil went down with a yelp.

Andrew was there in an instant, rolling Neil over to make sure he was okay. Neil’s face was screwed up in pain and his eyes were watering but he was trying so hard to reign it in. The kids gathered around and even though Neil looked like he was dying he managed to moan out a dramatic, “Son of a nutcracker!” The kids just stared, slack-jawed and confused. But then Andrew burst out laughing. He knew everyone was staring at him in horror, but he didn’t stop, not until the kids joined in.

The tense moment passed and Dan got the kids back on the field and Andrew got Neil to his feet and helped him limp to the relative privacy of the bleachers.

“How’s your junk?” Andrew asked, lips still twitching.

“Fuck you,” Neil muttered.

“I doubt it.”

“Ugh… why are you such a jackass sometimes?” Neil complained, easing down onto the bleachers with a pained moan.

“I totally saved _your_ ass back there,” Andrew said. “Juvenile humor to cover up your suffering.”

Neil rolled his eyes and leaned over to rest against Andrew. They watched the remainder of the scrimmage in silence and Neil even let Andrew smoke a cigarette or two.

After the kids had been loaded up on the bus to go back to their homes, the Foxes came over to join them. Surprisingly, it was Nicky who looked at him and demanded, “What the shit was that, Andrew? Your boyfriend gets hit in the balls and you laugh?”

“Only when he’s quoting a stupid kid movie,” Andrew replied. “Neil was trying to save face, so I helped him out.” Neil nodded.

“Yeah, I talked to that little bas-ahem _kid_ ,” Dan said. “He claimed that his hand slipped. I made sure he understood that intentionally injuring a player could permanently end his sports career.” She patted Neil’s shoulder. “He said he was sorry. By the way, Neil, good job toughing it out and not letting your rage monster flag fly.”

“Next time we’re wearing padding,” Neil said. He stood up, groaning softly, his hand squeezing Andrew’s shoulder for support. He took a few steps and looked like he was about to be sick.

“No one likes a martyr, Josten,” Andrew said before he carefully scooped Neil into his arms.

Neil slung his arm around Andrew’s shoulder and smiled that stupid dopey smile. “Well, hello, No One, thanks so much for liking me.”

“Pfft,” Andrew snorted, lips quirking into a tiny smile. “You’re not funny, Neil.” He bumped his forehead against Neil’s and started walking towards their car. “Not funny at all.”

In the background he could hear Nicky exclaim, “Did he – did Andrew just fucking smile?!”

**Author's Note:**

> FYI: Yes, I know sports injuries are NOT funny, especially to very tender areas. owowowow Neil’s testicles are okay. He made a full recovery by the end of the day and learned a lesson to 1) always wear padding and 2) not to underestimated vengeful children. The next time Kyle sees Neil he apologizes properly and Andrew is able to help him become an exy-llent goal keeper.
> 
> You can find me on tumblr @dkafterdark


End file.
